Senior Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP and Founder & Chair, Common Good
Philip K. Howard is a well-known leader of government and legal reform in America. He is Chair of Common Good and a bestselling author, and has advised both parties on needed reforms. In his new book, Not Accountable (Rodin Books, 2023), he argues that public employee unions undermine democratic governance and should be unconstitutional.
Philip is the author of the bestseller The Death of Common Sense (Random House, 1995), The Collapse of the Common Good (Ballantine Books, 2002), Life Without Lawyers (W.W. Norton, 2009), The Rule of Nobody (W.W. Norton, 2014), and Try Common Sense (W.W. Norton, 2019). His commentaries are published frequently in major media outlets.
In 2002, Philip formed Common Good, a nonpartisan coalition dedicated to simplifying laws so that Americans can use common sense in daily choices. His 2010 TED Talk has been viewed by more than 750,000 people. His 2015 report, “Two Years, Not Ten Years,” exposed the economic and environmental costs of delayed infrastructure approvals, and its proposals have since been incorporated into federal law. Philip has appeared often on television and radio, including several times on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.”
The son of a minister, Philip got his start working summers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner. He has been active in public affairs his entire adult life. He is Senior Counsel at the law firm Covington & Burling, LLP. A graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School, Philip lives in Manhattan with his wife Alexandra. They have four children.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Danny Julián Boggs is a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was appointed to a newly created seat on that court on January 29, 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 3, and received his commission on March 25. He served as the Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit from 2003 to 2009.
Senior Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP and Founder & Chair, Common Good
Philip K. Howard is a well-known leader of government and legal reform in America. He is Chair of Common Good and a bestselling author, and has advised both parties on needed reforms. In his new book, Not Accountable (Rodin Books, 2023), he argues that public employee unions undermine democratic governance and should be unconstitutional.
Philip is the author of the bestseller The Death of Common Sense (Random House, 1995), The Collapse of the Common Good (Ballantine Books, 2002), Life Without Lawyers (W.W. Norton, 2009), The Rule of Nobody (W.W. Norton, 2014), and Try Common Sense (W.W. Norton, 2019). His commentaries are published frequently in major media outlets.
In 2002, Philip formed Common Good, a nonpartisan coalition dedicated to simplifying laws so that Americans can use common sense in daily choices. His 2010 TED Talk has been viewed by more than 750,000 people. His 2015 report, “Two Years, Not Ten Years,” exposed the economic and environmental costs of delayed infrastructure approvals, and its proposals have since been incorporated into federal law. Philip has appeared often on television and radio, including several times on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.”
The son of a minister, Philip got his start working summers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner. He has been active in public affairs his entire adult life. He is Senior Counsel at the law firm Covington & Burling, LLP. A graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School, Philip lives in Manhattan with his wife Alexandra. They have four children.
Roy W. and Eugenia C. McDonald Endowed Chair in Civil Procedure & Professor of Government, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Charles Silver holds the Roy W. and Eugenia C. McDonald Endowed Chair in Civil Procedure at the School of Law at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published widely in law reviews and peer-reviewed journals. His articles use economic theory, philosophical and doctrinal reasoning, and empirical methodologies to shed light on issues arising in the areas of civil procedure, liability insurance, and the professional regulation of attorneys. He has written about group lawsuits (including class actions and other mass proceedings), attorneys’ fees (including contractual compensation arrangements, common fund fee awards, and statutory fee awards), and professional responsibility (focusing on lawyers involved in civil litigation on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants). In recent years, as Co-Director of the Center on Lawyers, Civil Justice and the Media at the University of Texas, he has worked with a group of empirical researchers on a series of studies of medical malpractice litigation in Texas.
Professor Silver served as Associate Reporter on the Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation, published by the American Law Institute in 2010. He taught as a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Law School, the University of Michigan Law School, and the Vanderbilt University Law School.
Professor Silver has given many presentations at academic conferences, including programs sponsored by the American Law and Economics Association, the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, the Law & Society Association, RAND, and the Searle Center on Law, Regulation and Economic Growth. He has also spoken at faculty colloquia at law schools across the U.S.
Professor Silver often consults with attorneys and serves as an expert witness. He has strong ties with all segments of the litigating bar. On the plaintiffs’ side, he submitted an expert report on attorneys’ fees in the massive Enron settlement and served as professional responsibility advisor to the private attorneys who handled the State of Texas’ lawsuit against the tobacco industry. On the defense side, he advises on the responsibilities of lawyers retained by insurance carriers to defend liability suits against policyholders. Professor Silver has also testified to legislative committees and submitted amicus curiae briefs to courts on topics ranging from class certification to lawyers’ fiduciary duties to medical malpractice litigation.
In 2009, the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) of the ABA awarded Professor Silver the Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award for outstanding scholarship on tort and insurance law.
Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans From Too Much Law
Chicago Lawyers Chapter
Chicago, ILDebate: Is Civil Litigation a Threat to Democracy?
2004 National Student Symposium
Nashville, TN